Stephen, Sir Leslie, and Sidney Lee, editors. The Dictionary of National Biography. Smith, Elder, 1908–2024, 22 vols. plus supplements.
under James Fordyce
James Fordyce
Standard Name: Fordyce, James
Connections
| Connections Sort descending | Author name | Excerpt |
|---|---|---|
| Family and Intimate relationships | Lady Anne Barnard | Lady Anne's sister Margaret
(later Burges) made a reluctant marriage to Alexander Fordyce
(brother to the preacher and author Dr James Fordyce
) when she was eighteen. He had been born in Aberdeen but found... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Elizabeth Isabella Spence | EIS
's uncles, her mother's brothers, included David Fordyce
, an academic and early Scottish Enlightenment figure (who died before she was born), Rev Dr James Fordyce
, author of the notorious Sermons to Young... |
| Family and Intimate relationships | Isabella Kelly | IK
was related to two other writers: James Fordyce
(her uncle) and Elizabeth Isabella Spence
, a cousin. |
| Friends, Associates | Anna Letitia Barbauld | Her close friends at this period included Mary
and Joseph Priestley
and a number of young women of her own age. She was particularly attracted by a pair of sisters who got themselves barred from... |
| Friends, Associates | Helena Wells | In London HW
associated with many literary characters,sensible men and women. She mentions Dr James Fordyce
as my worthy and much revered friend. Wells, Helena. Letters on Subjects of Importance to the Happiness of Young Females. L. Peacock; W. Creech, 1799. 100, 19 |
| Intertextuality and Influence | Barbara Hofland | The title-page quotes from Fordyce
's sermons for young ladies. The pattern heroine, Louisa Franklin, demonstrates her goodness early in the story by reading Elizabeth Pinchard
's The Blind Child. She weathers her mother's... |
| Literary responses | Elizabeth Isabella Spence | The Critical Review, having learned that the author was the niece of James Fordyce
, pronounced that her morality was as irreproachable as would be expected from the relationship. Garside, Peter et al., editors. The English Novel 1770-1829. Oxford University Press, 2000, 2 vols. 2: 258 |
| Literary responses | Catharine Macaulay | This reflective, original work had an important influence on Mary Wollstonecraft
. Wollstonecraft
wrote the notice of it in the Analytical Review, calling the author the woman of the greatest abilities . .... |
| Textual Features | Anna Letitia Barbauld | ALB
draws on Hannah More
, her niece Lucy Aikin
, and (anonymously) Joanna Baillie
. She is even-handed in that she includes six excerpts from James Fordyce
's Sermons to Young Women, a... |
| Textual Features | Helena Wells | HW
says she has more respect for the upper classes than some of our modern reformists. Wells, Helena. Letters on Subjects of Importance to the Happiness of Young Females. L. Peacock; W. Creech, 1799. 7 |
| Textual Features | Tabitha Tenney | Choice of women writers is fairly generous, with excerpts from Hester Mulso Chapone
, John Aikin
and Anna Letitia Barbauld
(Evenings at Home), Susanna Haswell Rowson
, Elizabeth Carter
, Hester Thrale
,... |
| Textual Features | Sarah Green | The tone of the work is conservative, leavened with an intelligent concern for development of independent thinking. Topics of various letters include Conduct and Conversation, Forbearance, Chastity, Truth, Employment of Time... |
| Textual Features | Isabella Kelly | IK
tells with decorous energy the story of a remarkable woman. Henrietta Fordyce
(née Cummyng), whom IK
had known well in her youth, was brought up with Lady Anne Barnard
. IK
gives a rather... |
| Textual Production | Isabella Kelly | IK
published, anonymously, Memoir of the late Mrs. Henrietta Fordyce
, relict of James Fordyce
D.D.. British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo. |
| Theme or Topic Treated in Text | Elizabeth Isabella Spence | The title-page quotes Burns
and Scott
. The preface remarks that books based on female impressions of national manners and moral character have succeeded in the past. Spence, Elizabeth Isabella. Sketches of the Present Manners, Customs, and Scenery of Scotland. 2nd ed., Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1811, 2 vols. prelims iv |
Timeline
25 May 1760: Dr James Fordyce, a minister in the Church...
Building item
25 May 1760
Dr James Fordyce
, a minister in the Church of Scotland
, preached a sermon which, as published, made him famous: The Folly, Infamy, and Misery of Unlawful Pleasure.
Sheridan, Frances. “Introduction”. Memoirs of Miss Sidney Bidulph, edited by Jean Coates Cleary et al., World’s Classics, Oxford University Press, 1995.
xxvii and n24
By June 1766: James Fordyce anonymously printed his Sermons...
Building item
By June 1766
James Fordyce
anonymously printed his Sermons to Young Women. It went through ninety-five British reprints by 1850, plus half as many again in the USA.
Hunt, Margaret R. The Middling Sort: Commerce, Gender, and the Family in England, 1680-1780. University of California Press, 1996.
75
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
22: 18-31
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
23: 61
Fleeman, John David, and James McLaverty. A Bibliography of the Works of Samuel Johnson. Clarendon Press, 2000, 2 vols.
2: 1154
Hunt...
By March 1776: James Fordyce, in The Character and Conduct...
Building item
By March 1776
James Fordyce
, in The Character and Conduct of the Female Sex, used women's virtue and status as an index of civilized society, but denounced learned women.
Guest, Harriet. Small Change: Women, Learning, Patriotism, 1750-1810. University of Chicago Press, 2000.
156-7
Critical Review. W. Simpkin and R. Marshall, 5 series.
41 (1776): 208
Texts
No bibliographical results available.